Video trail examined in third day of testimony

January 19, 2012

BROOKVILLE — Jurors during the third day of the Steven P. Rebert's double-homicide trial learned how he left a video trail of surveillance of him stopping at Sheetz as he made his way to the home of Wayne and Vickie Shugar, Coal Tipple Road, Brockway.
Rebert, formerly of Emporium, faces double homicide charges in the shooting deaths of the Shugars, both 61, who were found dead April 12, 2010, in their home.
Testifying for District Attorney Jeffrey Burkett, Stephanie Lee Coral, a loss investigator for Sheetz, described how she assists police in Brockway, Emporium and St. Marys with investigations — including the Shugars' case — involving stores in those regions.
Burkett asked that five video CDs — all showing the correct time stamp — be entered into evidence from the Brockway, St. Marys and Emporium stores.
Rebert's attorney John Ingros asked how jurors could know the time and date stamps are accurate. Coral replied that time is synchronized through Sheetz.com from NASA and U.S. Navy servers, and all stores are synched with the central time server on the Internet.
Burkett's next witness, Tpr. Tim Wittman, a 20-year trooper and criminal investigator assigned to the Marienville PSP barracks, reviewed the surveillance footage from all three Sheetz stores to see if Rebert turned up in their videos either March 3 or April 10, 2010, which is believed to be the day the Shugars were killed in the basement of their home.
Wittman testified that he was able to observe Rebert arrive and leave at all three Sheetz stores — on both dates in question — in his 1987 Mercury Marquis.
The jury viewed the video surveillance following lunch, which corresponded with the following testimony:
• Wittman said March 3, 2010, Rebert's dark-colored vehicle was seen via the front lot camera at Sheetz in Brockway as he drove into the lot, as he was traveling southbound and as he made a left turn into the parking lot.
Wittman said the side door view showed Rebert entering the store, where his car was parked outside, at 7:43 a.m. March 3, as well as Rebert leaving the store at 7:50 a.m..
"The front door view shows Rebert walking through the store, and the clothes he was wearing match the description of the person whose car was parked on Coal Tipple Road March 3, 2010, and was later identified as his, after the plate was run by state police," Wittman said.
• Rebert was also identified in a video at Sheetz in Emporium — located near Rebert's 422 North Broad St. residence — April 10, 2010.
The video showed Rebert pumping gas into his car, then pulling onto Route 120.
Wittman said Rebert returned again at 6:59 p.m. to the Emporium Sheetz, then departed and turned onto Route 120 toward St. Marys.
• A dumpster camera view from Sheetz in St. Marys showed Rebert pulling in at 7:22 p.m. from Route 120, behind the store where the dumpster was located, he said.
That video showed Rebert wearing a shirt that bore logos on the front and the back as previously described, as well as the ball cap that was described, Wittman said, Rebert also purchased a drink in a cup, a snack and a lottery ticket, and he checked the air in his tires.
Wittman said at 7:26 p.m., Rebert got back in his vehicle and departed Sheetz at 7:28 p.m., turning right and driving toward Brockway.

See full article by purchasing the Jan. 19 edition of The Kane Republican.

Copyright 2010 Kane Republican

BROOKVILLE — Jurors during the third day of the Steven P. Rebert's double-homicide trial learned how he left a video trail of surveillance of him stopping at Sheetz as he made his way to the home of Wayne and Vickie Shugar, Coal Tipple Road, Brockway.